4th crime fireworks: Stabbings, El assault

CLARIFICATION: After further review the Philadelphia Police Department, which initially reported three stabbings Monday night during the July 4th festivities, said yesterday that only two stabbings occurred. What police initially reported as two stabbings — one at 15th and Market and the other at 15th and Chestnut — were actually the same stabbing, said police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers.

During the Fourth of July festivities, city police logged 22 arrests and two stabbings that have not yet been solved, and SEPTA reported an incident on the Market-Frankford El in which three adults were punched and robbed by a group of juveniles.

Police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers said that for the number of people who attended the Welcome America! festival - he estimated the crowd at 300,000 - the crime stats were low.

"Overall, we think we did a pretty good job for the amount of people leaving at one small time frame," he said. "During that mass exodus of people, you're going to have incidents where people don't act like they should."

Of the documented incidents in which people didn't act as they should, three were stabbings. A 20-year-old man was stabbed in LOVE Park about 8:30 p.m.; a 17-year-old boy was stabbed in the back near 15th and Market some time after 11 p.m., Evers said.

All those victims are expected to survive. Evers said that each stabbing stemmed from groups of males who were fighting each other. No arrests have been made in those cases.

Arrests also had not been made yesterday in the case of three adults who were assaulted and robbed by a group of seven to 10 boys shortly before midnight on an eastbound El train between 15th and 30th streets, said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch.

The group of kids first punched a 24-year-old Upper Darby woman, then stole her cellphone, Busch said.

When her 21-year-old female friend from Glenolden and her 24-year-old male friend from Royersford tried to come to her aid, the kids also punched them and stole their cellphones.

The train operator radioed to have police meet the train at 30th Street Station, but when it arrived, the juveniles fled into the crowd, Busch said yesterday.

Of the 22 arrests made in Center City and South Philly, 10 were for disorderly conduct, three were for marijuana possession, two were for assaults on police and the rest were mostly for alcohol-related incidents.

Both incidents of assaults against police occurred about 11:30 p.m. at Broad Street and JFK Boulevard.

A 19-year-old man was charged with jumping on one officer's back while the cop was arresting the man's cousin, and a 20-year-old man who refused to leave the area knocked down a police officer who grabbed him, Evers said.